Our elites used to lead from the front, with sacrifice and service. Those days are gone.

Variety recently gave Chelsea Clinton an Impact Award for her work empowering children to develop lifelong healthy habits. Does anyone believe the magazine selected Clinton — purely on her merits — over the hundreds of thousands of American pre-school teachers, educators, nutritionists and researchers who have devoted their lives to helping in this area?

Clinton’s roles over the past year have included: working on her mom’s presidential campaign, serving as vice chair of her parents’ charitable foundation and co-founding the NYU Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership, among other activities. It’s a wonder she had any time to spare for work on childhood development. Perhaps Clinton is a Nietzschean super-person of amazing stamina and accomplishment.

But Clinton is only an also-ran next to first son-in-law Jared Kushner. Kushner was born into a very rich family, attended expensive private schools and then Harvard (where his parents made a multimillion dollar donation that may have eased his admission process), joined his family’s real estate business, and subsequently married the daughter of a billionaire. President Trump has now put his young, inexperienced son-in-law in charge of Middle East peace, Innovation in Government, America’s opioid crisis, and much more.

I believe Kushner’s official title is Grand Poobah. His only qualification for all these important responsibilities appears to be, well, let’s listen to the president, as channeled by Alec Baldwin on NBC’s Saturday Night Live: “Jared, you are such an inspiration. You've showed everybody that if you are born rich and marry my daughter, you can do anything you want.”

A lesser man than Trump might have felt a responsibility to all Americans to search high and low for the best people to fill these positions. But Trump, perhaps showing the same judgment he demonstrated in bankrupting The Trump Taj Mahal, The Trump Castle and other ventures, put Kushner in charge of some of America’s most important projects. Clearly, American exceptionalism must still exist, because no other large democracy would tolerate this degree of nepotism.

Trump often speaks about taking us back to the greatness of America’s past — when we knew how to win. Well, in the past our ruling elites led (albeit imperfectly) from the front, with their own hard work and sacrifice.

Veterans Kennedy and Bush would later become our 35th and 41st presidents, respectively. And that brings us back to Chelsea Clinton and Jared Kushner. On Sept. 11, 2001, America was again attacked on its own soil and almost 3,000 were killed. Since that attack, right up to today, millions of our finest young people have voluntarily served in our armed forces. Still others have served our country in the Peace Corps, in our diplomatic service, or at home as medical professionals, community organizers and teachers.

Post 9/11, however, Clinton and Kushner sacrificed nothing to help their fellow citizens. They were too busy making money and building their family empires, because apparently duty and risk in our nation’s service is only for the “little people” these days. Clinton’s and Kushner’s advantages, privileges and benefits would be more palatable and understandable if they had earned them by leading from the front.

Trump hasn’t surrounded himself with the best people to handle the nation’s business, even though he promised to do so. Far too many of Trump’s appointments smell of nepotism, campaign contributions and cronyism. All of this feeds an atmosphere of distrust and cynicism about our government. The presidency of the U.S. isn’t meant to be the Trump family’s personal vehicle for expanding its network and enhancing its business empire.

Even worse, rot starts from the top and spreads down. Every cabinet officer, senator, governor and congressman has now been empowered by the Trumps to prioritize their own families and enterprises over the interests of our country. It’s time for those who voted for Trump to hold him accountable to the standards he proclaimed for himself on the campaign trail. And it’s time for Trump to set an example by reducing Kushner’s role to something appropriate to his actual experience and capabilities.

Steven Strauss, a visiting professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter @Steven_Strauss.